Freedom’s Softball & Tennis & Wharton’s Baseball & Track Teams Spring Forward

Wharton Baseball (Photo: Gigante Productions)

The spring sports season ended last month, and, of all the spring teams at New Tampa’s two high schools, the Wharton baseball team proved to be the last team standing, falling in the Regional semifinals.

They weren’t the only team to put up a strong postseason, however, as Wharton’s softball, track & field and girls tennis teams all made it past Districts, as did the softball and both tennis teams at Freedom.

Here’s a recap of some of the highlights:

WHARTON BASEBALL: The Wildcats made yet another Regional playoff run in 2018, after finishing as the runner-up in the Class 8A, District 4 tournament. Wharton set down crosstown rival Freedom 4-0 in the District semifinals, but fell to the Strawberry Crest Chargers in the final.

After an 8-1 win over Ocala Forest in the Region quarterfinals, Wharton got another shot at the Chargers, but dropped a 3-2 decision to finish the season at 17-9.

The Wildcats’ three-man pitching rotation was a strength all season. Duncan Pastore, a senior, and junior Brian Baughman each won six games — Pastore had three shutouts — and junior Zach Allen was 4-2. The trio combined for 127 strikeouts in 117 innings.

Pastore also led the Wildcats with a .431 average and 17 RBI, while Baughman batted .398 and led the team in hits. Senior Leo Alfonzo batted .397 and tied for the team lead with 17 RBI.

“Starting pitching, as well as talented freshmen and sophomores, have been key to our success this year,” coach Scott Hoffman said. “Brian Baughman was a stud down the stretch.”

The Wharton baseball team even earned the District’s Team GPA Award with a team Grade Point Average of 3.505.
Freedom’s baseball team finished 6-16, dropping its last eight games. Senior Hunter Kniskern hit .333 with five doubles to lead the Patriots.
FREEDOM SOFTBALL: After a slow start,. the Patriots went 13-1 down the stretch to finish 19-6.

The only loss in that streak was to arch-rival Wharton, but the Patriots got revenge when it mattered most, beating the Wildcats 13-0 to win the District 8A-4 title.

“That was the first District title for softball in Freedom’s history, so it was a great accomplishment for those 11 girls,” Patriots head coach Autum Hernandez said. “The girls were motivated before the game, they wanted to prove that they hadn’t played their best against Wharton the two previous times we played them.”

Freedom advanced to the Regional semifinals by beating Ocala Forest 6-2 in the first round of the State Class 8A playoffs, before a 7-0 loss to East Ridge ended the Pats’ season.

Sophomore Ellis Erickson led Freedom with 34 hits and a .442 batting average. She was one of a number of underclassmen — sophomore Shaniyah Pope had 25 RBI, while freshman Lilly Kiester led the team with 26 runs and junior Abigail Vandeberg hit .361 — to shine for the Patriots, who have a bright future, according to Hernandez.

The team only had two seniors, with Kristina Calixto driving in a team-best 27 runs while going 8-2 in the pitching circle, and Dallas O’Clair batting .333.

The future also looks promising for Wharton, as underclassmen led the team in average, runs and doubles (freshman Tieley Vaughn), hits and RBI (junior Jordyn Gendron) and triples (junior Asia Thomas).

Sophomore Jillian Long was the winning pitcher in 13 of Wharton’s 15 wins.

The same East Ridge team that ended Freedom’s season did the same to Wharton in the first round at Regionals.

FREEDOM TENNIS: The Patriots broke through for a historic season in 2018, taking two boys and two girls to the Class 3A State tournament in Orlando under fourth-year head coach Rich Simard.

“We’ve been pretty consistent the last four years, both boys and girls,” Simard said. “We’ve been either District champs or runners-up over that time.”

The Freedom boys won a third straight District title in 2018. At the District 3A-9 tournament, Patriots sophomore Hakim Zerki took the title at No. 1 singles, and then teamed up at No. 1 doubles with senior Jared Klay for another title. The wins qualified both players for States.
The Zerki-Klay doubles team made the Round of 16 at the State tournament, the highest climb for a boys doubles team under Simard. Things look even more promising for the future, as Zerki’s younger brother, Malik, will be a Freedom freshman next year.

On the girls side, sophomore Julianna Gibson won her second straight District singles title at No. 1, and then teamed up with sophomore Zoe Ruszin to win at No. 1 doubles. That helped the Patriots team to a second-place team finish at Districts, but Gibson and Ruskin qualified for States as individuals.

“The girls are going to be even stronger next year,” Simard said. “Gibson was very close to breaking through deep into the State tournament, and next year is going to be a good shot for her.”

WHARTON TRACK: The Wildcats took 13 athletes from the boys and girls teams to the Class 4A State meet at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville on April 16.

Senior AJ Hampton was the top finisher for Wharton, running the 400 meters in 48.09 seconds to take fourth place. The time was just off his personal and school record of 47.53, set a week earlier at Regionals.

Hampton capped his high school career with three medals at States. Next year, he will attend Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, on a football scholarship. Northwestern, however, does not have a men’s track program.

“AJ willingly did the most painful event in track, knowing that if he qualified for States, it would be his last race,” Wharton boys coach Kyle LoJacono said. “Having AJ as kind of the captain of the sprints and Frankie (.) as captain of distance was huge this year.”

Godbold, a four-year runner and two-year captain for the ‘Cats, surprised even Coach LoJacono with his chance entry in the 800 meters.

Godbold, more of a traditional long distance runner that LoJacono threw into the 800m halfway through the season, was only seeded eighth at the District meet. However, he finished second in 2 minutes, 3 seconds. He cut his time even further at Regionals, with a 1:57.97, the fastest time for a male 800m runner for Wharton in the last decade.

“Just getting to states for Frankie was incredible, it made me so proud,” LoJacono said.

Teammate Nehemiah Rivers, a junior, became the first male Wildcat distance runner to win the 1600m at Regionals. He also became the first Wildcat to qualify for the State meet in both the 1600m and 3200m races in the same season.

Rivers placed 12th in the 3200 at the Class 4A State finals with a time of 9:44.44, and he was 22nd in the 1600m finals, running a 4:36.70.
Both times were markedly slower than Rivers’ breakout performances at Regionals, where he set personal and school records in the 1600 (4:25.39) and 3200 (9:25.77).

While winning the 1600 at Regionals, Rivers ran a sterling 59-second final lap.

Tennis Event At Hunter’s Green On June 23 To Benefit Victim Of Lyme Disease

For years, whatever it was that was ailing Courtney Krysa befuddled doctors.

Fatigue and horrible joint pain had transformed her life into a difficult struggle. Even when she was able to play soccer for Freedom High, Courtney would sometimes pass out. She developed a heart arrhythmia, several neurological deficits and debilitating arthritis.

That finally led to a definitive diagnosis — Courtney had Advanced Neurological Lyme disease, likely the result of a tick bite she was treated for in 2008.

Although she wasn’t diagnosed with Lyme disease at the time of the bite — never developing the bulls-eye rash that is often the first symptom of the disease — she has suffered with the consequences and a series of setbacks ever since.

While there is no actual cure for the disease, and very few effective treatments, after years of searching, Katie Krysa thinks…hopes…she has found the answer.

But mostly, for the first time in a while, Katie says she has found hope.

On Saturday, June 23, at noon, at the Hunter’s Green Country Club Sports Club, friends of Katie will host “A Twist of Lyme” tennis social to raise money for Courtney’s continued treatment.

Katie, a Tampa Palms resident who plays league tennis with teams based out of West Meadows, is not surprised the New Tampa tennis community is stepping forward to help cover the costs of Courtney’s treatments. Katie says she already has exhausted her bank account by spending $20,000 for six weeks of the treatment; another 18-24 weeks is likely needed.

“I’ve relied on many of my tennis friends during this entire process,” she says. “They have been so great.”
A minimum $30 donation is requested to be part of the social, which also will have silent auctions and raffles.

The first 50 people to sign up will receive a tennis towel, and everyone who plays gets lunch, two margaritas and an afternoon of tennis and music, provided by D.J. Robby Rob.
Once a vibrant, energetic teenager, her mother says Lyme disease has ravaged Courtney’s body, penetrating her nervous system and damaging her kidneys. Courtney missed most of her senior year at Freedom, and couldn’t attend graduation ceremonies.

Katie says she has spent over $100,000 visiting clinics in Cleveland and Nashville, as well as visiting dozens of specialists, with every potential solution, most of them not covered by insurance, leading to a dead end.

Ready to give up, Katie says she discovered David Minkoff, M.D., an alternative medicine specialist, at the LifeWorks Wellness Center in Clearwater.

LifeWorks specializes in treating chronic illnesses, and Katie says she has been encouraged by the early results.

Courtney, who has spent much of the past few years bed-ridden and in a wheelchair, can today walk 25 feet without assistance, and has displayed cognitive improvements.

“I didn’t know where to go anymore before I found this treatment,” Katie says. “I didn’t have a lot of hope. I just thought I was going to have to watch her slowly get worse.”

After years of disappointment, Katie is optimistic her last hope can help restore to Courtney some of the quality of life she once enjoyed.

To read more about Courtney’s story and register for the A Twist of Lyme tennis social, visit HopeRisingInc.org. The HGCC Sports Club is located at 18050 Hunter’s Oak Ct.

Wharton’s Flag Football Team Faces A Tough Road To Make It To States

Top left: Flag football is not exactly no-contact, as Wharton’s Lauryn Thompson gets face-palmed after coming down with a catch. (Photos by Andy Warrener)

When Tina and Mike Roberts took over the Wharton High flag football team six years ago, they had just 22 girls try out, and very few fans attended their games.

“In years past, no one came to the games, not even the home games,” Mike Roberts says.

Fast forward to the 2018 preseason, and the Wildcats had 50 girls try out for this year’s team. Wharton maintains a 16-girl varsity squad and a 19-player JV team, and while currently unranked has spent most of the season ranked in the Class 2A Top 20 poll, according to FloridaHighSchoolFootball.com.

At last week’s game at Leto, the Wildcats showed off their firepower by throttling the Falcons 46-0. They also brought about two dozen fans along to stock the visitor stands, outnumbering those on the home side.

The victory improved Wharton’s record to 7-3 at the time, with the Class 2A District 7 playoffs looming. But getting out of districts is no easy task, as Plant showed Wharton two days after the Leto win.

Top Right: Wharton’s Parker Onderko leaps and makes the catch in the victory over Leto.

The Panthers, the defending Class 2A State champions, beat Wharton 26-0.

Currently ranked No. 3 in the state, Plant isn’t even ranked as the best team in the district — Alonso is ranked No. 1 in the state.

“If you can get through this district, you have a good chance to go far,” Mike Roberts said.

The Wildcats will need some upsets to get out of districts and into the State playoffs. Last year, they shocked Alonso in the District quarterfinals, before falling the following game to Plant in quadruple overtime.

The Roberts family has grown into coaching the sport of flag football. Tina says she came by it by pure accident. She was assigned the sport from the school administration seven years ago when it began. A year later, her husband Mike came on board. A year after that, their son Travis (23) also joined the coaching staff.

“Tina asked me to come on and help after an assistant left that first year and I fell in love with it,” Mike says.

Flag football runs the same way regular football’s 7-on-7 exercises do. Seven players line up in a passing formation. One defensive player is allowed to rush the quarterback and offenses can either pass or run with the ball. The offensive team must gain 20 yards to earn a first down.

There is no kicking in the game, so after each touchdown, the team has the option of running or passing for a one- or two-point conversion.

Girls flag football has grown from niche sport to one of the most popular offerings for female athletes. It only became an official Florida High School Athletic Association sport in 2003, but has more than doubled its participation numbers to more than 250 teams and 6,000 players competing since then.

“I loved just being a part of the team and having the opportunity to play and have fun,” says quarterback Marinique Reddin, one of the team’s top players.

Starting this school year, middle schools in Hillsborough County — including Benito, Turner-Bartels and Liberty — offer girls flag football. This is expected to help the high school game, which until now has basically had to rely on players competing in flag football for the first time. Tina says for years, most of her players had to be taught the game from scratch, which was a major disadvantage compared to other high school sports.

The Wharton High girls flag football team is 7-4 this season, and hopes to pull off a few upsets at the District tournament in a bid for the state playoffs.

“It’s going to make the sport that much better,” Mike Roberts says. “Next year, we’ll have eighth graders coming in that know the sport and you’ll see the payoffs.”

The Roberts’ dedication to the sport has helped build Wharton into one of the area’s better programs.

Reddin is tall and athletic and has the skill set to either pass the ball or tuck it and run, and scored four touchdowns in the win over Leto. Lauryn Thompson is another tall player with enough speed to score a touchdown any time she touches the football, which she did twice against Leto while adding an interception.

Both players are just juniors who have found their calling in the still relatively new sport.

“I love how competitive the game is and how the team has become so close, like one big family,” says Thompson. “If one of us needs help, we help each other out without downing each other. I look forward to practice every day.”

On defense, Ja’Nessa Ellis, Sade Seraaj and Mecca Bythewood had interceptions against Leto. Bythewood and Seraaj ran theirs back for touchdowns. Junior   Williams rushes the quarterback.

“It’s great to see what these girls can do with the football,” Mike Roberts said. “We put in plays and they execute them.” Look for updates at NTNeighborhoodNews.com.

Experience Reigns For First-Year Program Thanks To Influx Of Talent

First-year school, first-year program, low expectations, just want to get playing time in. Right?

Wrong.

The Cypress Creek Coyotes are not the team you want to schedule for Senior Night. That’s primarily because, thanks to last year’s rezoning of area high schools, Cypress Creek inherited a wealth of talented players that last year attended school at nearby Wesley Chapel High (WCH), gutting a program that was 19-8 last year and advanced to the Class 6A Regional semifinals before losing to eventual State champion Land O’Lakes.

The Coyotes’ entire infield and their new head coach are all former Wildcats, and they have a familiarity uncommon with new schools and new sports programs. Even Cypress Creek’s head coach Mike Peterson was an assistant at WCH the last two years, while also coaching the Tampa Lady Phantoms travel team for several years prior.

He’s coached many of the girls on his current team of Coyotes since they were seven and eight years old. Blending together a host of new players who have never shared a dugout, often one of the more difficult aspects of coaching, is not one of Peterson’s problems.

Cypress Creek C Neely Peterson has started the season on fire.

The Coyotes are off to an impressive  9-5 start as of our press time, with the losses coming against upper-echelon teams with a combined 51-10 record.

“There’s a level of trust when you have familiarity with your teammates,” junior Ashley Nickisher said. “You know that if you strike out or make an error that the other girls have your back. I have been really amazed at the way some of the new girls that came on have connected right away.”

Junior catcher Neely Peterson, already a verbal commitment to Colorado State University in Fort Collins, is leading the way.

You could say that Peterson is off to a blazing start — her .583 batting average, 10 doubles, four home runs and 29 RBI lead the team, and her homer and RBI totals lead all of Class 5A, District 7.

She’s a terrifying hitter out of the number three spot. Peterson remains the only hitter to park one off of Hernando ace Ali Shenefield, the top pitcher in the District.

“Last year, I got to learn from then-Chapel captain Dana Mumaw (now at Pasco-Hernando State College),” Peterson said. “I learned what it takes to be a good team captain.”

Nickisher is the other team captain. According to Peterson, she is a “smart infielder that makes the difficult plays look easy.” She has cooled off a little after a hot start, but is still second on the team with six doubles and two homers.

Jasmine Jackson, a junior second baseman, backs up Peterson at catcher and also can play shortstop. Coach Peterson says Jackson started the year on fire and she hasn’t let up – she has hits in 12 of the 13 games in which she has played and boasts a .444 average with 19 RBI, second to Peterson.

Junior Payton Hudson (.432) is a rangy shortstop with a strong arm and is a dangerous base runner as well, while sophomore first baseman Anna Margetis played for the Wildcats as a freshman and is currently tied with Jackson for second on the team with a .444 average.

“We’re very balanced offensively,” Peterson says. “We can hit for average or we can hit for power. It makes us a dangerous team.”

The Coyotes have very little depth in the pitching rotation – last year’s freshman phenom, Jordan Almasy, remained at WCH.

Instead, the Coyotes are riding the arm of right-handed junior Avery Lee. Lee came over from Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) in the school re-districting, but pitched only sparingly there. She has thrown 75 of the team’s 76 innings this year, compiling a 9-4 record with a 2.52 ERA.

“She (Lee) has a good ball-to-strike ratio and she keep us in games,” Peterson says. “She’s not going to overpower batters, but she’ll allow our defense to do their job.”

Like most new schools, especially those without a senior class, Cypress Creek had a small roster of 10 players on varsity. Emma Coons (.381), Page Mulford (.273) and Alexis Aponte (.250) round out the lineup. Peterson elected to have a JV team, where there are 10 more girls who will play, instead of riding the bench on varsity.

There have been other new school troubles that are often typical. While they are off 9-4 start as of our press time, the Coyotes had to play all of their early games on the road until their home field was finished.

They also had to forfeit a game against Land O’ Lakes in February because they had a fund raiser scheduled for the same night.

However, the Coyotes are a team to keep an eye on. They are going to be relevant even in this first year. When they field a senior-heavy lineup with a year of experience next season, watch out.

“It’s really been a joy coaching these kids since they were seven or eight and seeing the fruits of their labors,” Peterson said. “They put the hard work in and I hope to get a chance to watch many of them play at the next level.”

U.S. Hockey Women Stop By FHCI To Bid A Golden Farewell To Wesley Chapel

Wesley Chapel’s version of the Golden Girls — the gold-medal-winning U.S. Women’s Olympic Hockey team, returned to the place they have called home since September for an impromptu visit on Feb. 28, greeting a small crowd of well wishers at Florida Hospital Center Ice (FHCI) and thanking them for months of support, before heading to Amalie Arena in downtown Tampa, where they were honored before the Tampa Bay Lightning game against the Buffalo Sabres.

The fans at FHCI thanked the U.S. team for memories that will last a lifetime. A few dozen hockey loyalists, many who watched Team USA practices and exhibitions at the rink over the past six months, applauded the U.S. women as they walked through the doors, roughly a week after beating Canada in a memorable shootout in PyeongChang, South Korea, to capture the team’s first Olympic gold since 1998.

“This was a major priority for us,” said team captain and forward Meghan Duggan, a Massachusetts native and former University of Wisconsin All-American. “We talked a lot about wanting to give back to everyone that has supported us along the way, from family to fans, and Wesley Chapel played a huge role in our development, in getting us ready. We’ve been back in the U.S. for 36 hours, and were already here, so this was certainly was a priority for us.”

Team USA hockey forward Kendall Coyne celebrated the Olympic gold medal at FHCI on Feb. 28. (Photos: John C. Cotey)

The team’s performance in South Korea has been universally hailed as one of the greatest in U.S. Olympic hockey history, as Monique Lamoureux-Morando tied the game at 2-2 with less than seven minutes remaining to force a scoreless overtime period that led to a nail-biting shootout. Still tied after five shots each in the shootout, Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson, Monique’s twin, used three dekes before memorably slipping the puck past the Canadian goaltender Shannon Szabados.

Szabados’ American counterpart, Maddie Rooney, saved Canada’s next shot attempt (by Meghan Acosta, who had scored during the first five shootout rounds, but was stopped by Rooney in Round 6) to clinch the gold for the U.S..

“It was amazing,’’ said Wesley Chapel’s Kristin Folch. “It was so cool that they were in Wesley Chapel, where we got to see them, and then on TV. It felt like we were connected in some way.”

Folch took her two young children, Annabella — who is already playing hockey at age 5 — and Anthony to get a picture with the team.

Annabella is one of many young girls to be inspired by the U.S. Olympians, according to FHCI general manager Gordie Zimmerman. While the Olympic gold medal winners have put FHCI on the map — a plethora of stories begin with the mention of their journey starting in Wesley Chapel at the rink — he says the impact stretches far wider. The girls hockey program at FHCI already has more than 60 players, with Under-14 and Under-16 travel teams, and a rec program that caters to younger players. Many of the young skaters were able to interact with the gold medalists at camps and practices since September, and Zimmerman says a girls youth league is not too far down the road.

“They always seemed to make themselves available,” Zimmerman said. “They inspired a lot of girls in the area and across the nation to play hockey, and they are wonderful people and great ambassadors for the game. It’s good to see we still have that in America.”

While the team will now scatter back north to their frostier hometowns in places like Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and Massachusetts, Duggan says the won’t forget the hospitality and great weather —and even enduring Hurricane Irma — of Wesley Chapel.

“I think what we’ll miss about it is the community,” Duggan said. “We’ve been welcomed with open arms since we’ve been here, from the people at the rink, Gordie, his whole staff, Saddlebrook Resort (where the team stayed while training at FHCI) was awesome, everyone was really great. That’ll be the biggest thing we’ll miss. Hopefully, we’ll be able to come back down here at some point and say hey to everyone. They were a huge reason why we were able to be successful.”